Current accident estimation practices involve several steps which are time consuming, error prone and susceptible to fraud. An accidented vehicle site. Once at the site, the insurace company estimator must assess the vehicle damage and take photographs of the vehicle for use as substantiating evidence. The insurance company estimator then must negotiate the extent of the repair costs with the bodyshop estimator. Once repairs commence, the insurance estimator may choose to audit the repairs to ensure that the repairs are being done as agreed to. After the repairs are completed, the insurance estimator must inspect the finished product. This process involves, at a minimum, three trips to the bodyshop. It does not account for any extra steps required as a result of latent accident damage uncovered only after the accident repairs have commenced. Such latent damage necessitates an extra trip to the bodyshop by the insurance estimator and a modification to the repair cost estimate.
Travelling to various bodyshops can account for a significant part of an insurance estimator's day. Hours spent travelling are hours not spent estimating. A hurried estimator is prone to overlook details which could be used to drive up the cost of an estimate.
Photographs of the vehicle, unless of the "instant developing" type which can be verified on the spot, may not turn out well, thus eliminating visual evidence of the accident damage. By the time it is ascertained that the photographs are no good, the accident repairs may be well under way.
Unscrupulous insurance estimators and bodyshops can collude to artificially inflate the cost of the repairs for some form of kickback or payoff.
It is the insurance companies, and, ultimately, the consumers who pay the price for the inefficiencies and dishonesty.